There are lots of discussions about how Engineering and Product Management should be structured and interact.
But one I rarely hear discussed is that of Engineering reporting into Product Management.
To clarify, what I’m talking about is a structure where Engineering and Product Management of course, both report up into a VP of Product Management. i.e. Engineering has all the normal structures such as QA, Documentation, Development Managers, Program/Project Managers, Architects etc. etc. But that whole hierarchy reports up into the VP of PM.
I’m not saying that Engineering teams etc. should report into Product Managers specifically. Thus from an executive point of view, Product Management is held ultimately accountable for what is delivered in the product, but also has the authority to structure the Engineering resources as needed to optimize for the business goals they are trying to achieve.
Do you know of any companies where they’ve implemented this?
Are there certain situations where it can work or should be used?
What are the pluses and minuses here?
Whether you are an engineer, product manager or in another field, I’m really looking forward to your comments.
Saeed